Alan Daulby
© solarpix.comKiller: Alan Daulby knifed his ex-partner Avril Flanagan 53 times after she ended their relationship in 2009
  • Alan Daulby stabbed former partner 53 times after she dumped him
  • He wrapped her body in a plastic sheet and fled the police
  • Killer was caught after 200km police chase across Spain
A jilted stalker who stabbed his ex-girlfriend more than 50 times faced 20 years in jail today after being convicted of murder.

Alan Daulby killed blonde Irish bar worker Avril Flanagan, 20, after she ended their relationship by knifing her in the head, neck, chest, arms and legs with a kitchen knife.

Daulby, 26, subjected his former partner to seven minutes of agony before meticulously cleaning up the murder scene in his apartment on Spain's Costa Brava and going on the run.

He had phoned her so many times in the week leading up to the killing after the break-up that Avril had broken her phone SIM card to stop taking his calls.

She had begged her former lover to stop stalking her the week before he stabbed her to death in his apartment in Cabo Roig on the Costa Brava.

Daulby, from Blundellsands, Merseyside, stabbed the bar worker 53 times, wrapping her body in plastic sheeting and hiding it under the sofa, before burning the murder weapon and her belongings and fleeing the scene.

He was eventually arrested by armed police after a chase nearly 200km away.

Today Daulby wept as the unanimous guilty verdict was read out after a three-day trial in Elche, near Alicante in Spain.

As armed police led him away, Daulby, who claimed in court that he mistook Avril for an intruder, told the court: 'I just want to say I'm very sorry to the family for everything's that happened.'

Speaking outside court, her dad, Gerry, said: 'We'd like to thank our legal team for all the excellent job they've done.

'We just hope now he gets the full 20 years. Avril was a human being and my only daughter.'

Avril went missing after going to Daulby's flat in the resort of Cabo Roig on May 29, 2009, to pick up belongings and beg him to leave her alone.

The pair had shared the apartment until Avril ended their 18-month-long relationship a week earlier.

Forensic experts said Avril died only after she had been stabbed 47 times. Police put the number of stab wounds at 53.